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Talk:Illaoi/@comment-31543294-20180722091231/@comment-25579938-20180827095332
R is fantastic. :) But you only get to press it once in awhile. Speaking as an Illaoi semi-main, the real secret sauce is in her W. It is a four-second cooldown ability that scales with opponent percentage health on its own that *also* commands a multiplier of pet attacks - sometimes 2 extra simultaneous attacks at level 1 if the Illaoi is good, and of course potentially 3-5 later if she is ulting or someone nearby is cursed. Let's do just a Lv1 comparison on, say, Jax: An unequipped Illaoi at level 1 does 68 base attack damage plus 3% of the target's health with her W alone - estimate 15-25 extra damage at level 1 - for a total of 83-93 damage on a 4 second cooldown costing only 30 mana, which is already insane on its own merits. Each tentacle however because it has a *120% AD base scaling* does *91.6* points of *extra* damage at level 1 - 120% of 68 plus 10. So if you get two tentacle hits on a W - not that hard if the Illaoi is very skilled versus a green opponent - you're doing 83+91.6x2 = 266.2 damage with a *single attack* that is spammable again in *four seconds* - and it heals her! What does Jax have to counter that at level 1? Q and W that scale off only *bonus* AD, or AP, Jax doesn't have at level 1? He can get 80-100 damage off a Leap Strike on a *ten second* cooldown, 40-60 off an Empower on a *seven second* cooldown...both of which only scale with his skill investments later as well, whereas Illaoi's W scales up to meet Jax health naturally all game even at 1 skill point. Now of course the Counter Strike is the best play on champ vs champ merits alone...*but it doesn't block or prevent tentacle damage*. And it is on a 16 second cooldown, and if he wants to load it up from minions for CS he has to take some damage there, whereas Illaoi spam W 4 seconds all day and get pet damage for CS help with no drawback. Thus, the only scenario in which Jax even gets to think about beating Illaoi on damage at level 1 if she starts W is if he takes E first, only engages 1/4th as often as she does, *and* she tries to fight him outside her tentacle spawn range - which a good Illaoi won't do. In short, pretty much anything Jax can try at Level 1 to outdamage her falls in the face of a four-second spammable percentage health cooldown. That's *just at level 1*. Most players have seen what her ultimate does in this same vein later, and generally more obscenely. The R may spawn the tentacles, but it is her proc'ing multiple stacked tentacle slaps with her W that actually kills you. Thus, why she is a broken, broken stat check in a vast many matchups, particularly against older kits - I picked Jax for a reason, to kind of illustrate the power creep between his era of design and hers. But you do have to know what you're doing and realize *just how much power* is actually in her W. I will take it first in a great many matchups just for the reasons and calculations described above - especially if the opponent lets me tentacle up the lane properly and doesn't contest the tentacles. That all being said, despite all her power, she does not transition to the highest levels of play well. She does a lot better in normals and low ELO because she *does* have to hit her Q's and E's consistently in a close game in order to be truly effective, and higher ELO players will dodge them well and keep their distance until they bait out some of your own cooldowns. Even there she is a broken stat check, but she's one that the opponents can bait out and dodge effectively...still, in Normals and low ELO, yes, she is notorious for feels-bad stomps of unprepared opponents.